Lullaby greets babies' arrival

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MELVILLE, N.Y. - It's just like the movie "It's a Wonderful Life."
You know, the part at the end when a bell rings and everybody knowsan angel just got his wings?
But in this case, 18 seconds of Brahms' Lullaby plays.
And everyone inside Huntington Hospital knows a baby was just born.
In the maternity ward, a Lucite box covers a red button on thewall, with a Stork Club sign above it. As each new dad walks hisnewborn from the delivery room to be weighed and measured, hestops, pushes the button, and the gentle notes of the traditionallullaby chime throughout the hospital corridors, laboratories,cafeteria and patient rooms.
"You're pushing a button, but in some small way you're reaching outto everyone and announcing your child is born," said Bill Kramer ofEast Northport, who did the honors recently after his wife,Johannah, gave birth to Lily.
"I was still in the delivery room" when she heard the strains ofmusic, Johannah said. "They had just taken the baby for weighing.It was just joyful. It was a proud moment emotionally."
A momentary uplift
Staff, patients and visitors say they often stop what they aredoing and are momentarily uplifted as they are reminded of thecycle of life. And if the lullaby plays twice consecutively, well,that means only one thing: twins.
"It just stops everyone in their tracks," said Nina Goldsztejn, thehospital's assistant director of nursing.
Many units in the hospital are filled with people who are very sickand don't have so much good news, and, since the hospital installedthe system in December, it's been a source of encouragement.
"No matter how bad the day is, you hear that and it just makes youfeel like, 'Wow, another baby was born.' It's therapy for everyoneelse. If it could lift anyone else's spirits, comfort their soul,in that way it's very powerful medicine," Goldsztejn said.
And the hospital is usually dosed with that "powerful medicine"several times a day - 1,700 babies a year are born at HuntingtonHospital, Goldsztejn said. Patients don't have to worry about thelullabies interrupting business as usual - any emergency page willoverride the lullaby, she says.
Idea has taken off
Southampton Hospital in Southampton, N.Y, just installed the systemlast month. "Some people ask, 'What's that?' and we say, 'Thatmeans a baby was born' and a big smile comes across their face,"said Patricia Darcey, chief nursing officer there.
About 200 hospitals nationwide have installed the lullaby button,says Craig Olson, owner of Cotronix, the Minnesota-based companythat provides the system. Olson was working for a hospital inWisconsin about 10 years ago that came up with the idea, and ittook off from there, he says.
"Here we go," said new dad Rich Valenti of East Northport onerecent morning. He and his wife, Cheryl, pushed the button togetherat Huntington Hospital to announce the birth of daughter, Antonia.And then came the music, an instrumental version of the lullabywhose lyrics begin, "Lullaby, and goodnight ... ."
"You get all kinds of comments from all over the hospital," saidDr. John Wagner, who delivered Antonia and who is an obstetricianin private practice in Huntington and East Northport. "It justbrightens their day a little bit. That, and my colleagues realizehow busy we really are down here," Wagner joked.
"We love it," agreed Mary Beth Charno, a registered nurse in thehospital's oncology unit. "Being an oncology floor, it just givesus a reminder of the cycle of life. We have a lot of patients herewho are facing terminal illness. For me, it just lightens things upand reminds me life is coming in as well."
Other lullabies fit the bill
Brahms' Lullaby is arguably the best-known lullaby in America, butit's never short on competition. New lullabies come out all thetime.
"Standard baby music doesn't really entertain the mom and dad whohave to listen to it as well," said Lisa Roth, vice president ofCMH Records.
In late April, Roth's company came out with four "Hushabye Baby:Lullaby Renditions of Country Music Favorites" CDs that turncountry hits such as Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" intoinstrumental lullabies. The CDs are $11.98 each. Here are a coupleof other recent lullaby CDs:
Tony-nominated Broadway singer Melissa Errico released "Lullabies &Wildflowers" in April, combining her love of music with her newmotherhood experience. (Errico's daughter, Victoria, with tennispro husband Patrick McEnroe, is 2; Errico is pregnant with twinsand due in November.) She sings classics such as "Mockingbird" andoriginals such as "Gentle Child." From Velour Music Group, $16.98.
"It's not so much a CD about putting a baby to bed as it is alullaby for the moms," Errico said. She wanted to capture theemotion of being a mother without putting fatigued moms "into acoma." Some songs on the sophisticated album are "gently hip," shesays, and perfect not just for nighttime but also forlate-afternoon gentle playing.
The Putumayo Kids' Dreamland series, which features lullabies fromaround the world, in April released "African Dreamland." It joinsthe previous CDs "Asian Dreamland" and "Celtic Dreamland." Cost:$14.98.